What is the OSG dirt family of choice?

[jorri]

A little too 'other' perhaps. Hudson broadcast, my own fuzz design which has some resemblance to changing all the components of a fuzz face with eq until its not a ff..but a superfuzz and rat do other specific things aren't my favourite, especially my rat is used as treble booster and superfuzz mostly stacked for the octave on leads.

[Bradley-Jazz]

I mainly use the tape saturation drive on my Strymon Deco. For an additional push I add something in front - I recently got a Maxon 0D-9 after somehow never having a tubescreamer before, and it has its place on my board at present. Blues Driver (basic version) and DOD Looking Glass come and go, as well as a self-built Klone and kit Broadcast. I clearly lack consistency!

[Steadyriot.]

Back when I played an AC4, a Zendrive copy was my go-to dirt pedal (which is in the TS family I guess?!). After that a Blackstar HT Drive, which is a tube overdrive pedal / preamp.
These days I just use amp gain in my Kemper.

[kingmedicine]

A Rat and a Hotcake are the only two absolutes on any of my boards these days. If there is a 3rd, I’ll sometimes add a “transparent”-style OD.

With smaller amps, I could probably get away with just the Hotcake and with larger amps just the Rat would be fine.

[Shadoweclipse13]

I'm surprised it took that many replies before a Hotcake was mentioned

[Chippertheripper]

All of my drive needs come from either a klon-type device or a FuzzWar.
I do keep a TS, rat, and a couple k type variants around for fun, (as well as a bunch of fuzzes) but they don’t see regular use.

[Bradley-Jazz]

A Rat and a Hotcake are the only two absolutes on any of my boards these days. If there is a 3rd, I’ll sometimes add a “transparent”-style OD.

With smaller amps, I could probably get away with just the Hotcake and with larger amps just the Rat would be fine.

What amps are you using? Is there any truth to the story that Hotcakes are great with Voxes, and a bit flat with Fenders?

[JackFawkes]

I feel like this should somehow be cross-referenced with the Board Breakdown Proportions thread.

I immediately selected Muff and hit Submit since that's always been and probably will always be my favorite sound... then I noticed that I was supposed to select all that I actually regularly use, so I added Rat and Tubescreamer.
However, I feel like I should add a footnote to my Tubescreamer selection... I've tried several variants and none of them really worked for me except the Precision Drive. It can be a little finicky to dial in just right, but it's pretty great once you find your sweet spots. I think what makes it work for better for me than other TS' is the "Attack" knob which is actually a rotary that switches through different capacitor values allowing you to control the low-end cut (it also has a noise gate which can be neat too).

Jack

[Tafarel]

A Rat and a Hotcake are the only two absolutes on any of my boards these days. If there is a 3rd, I’ll sometimes add a “transparent”-style OD.

With smaller amps, I could probably get away with just the Hotcake and with larger amps just the Rat would be fine.

What amps are you using? Is there any truth to the story that Hotcakes are great with Voxes, and a bit flat with Fenders?

Hotcakes absolutely excel with Vox amps; it doesn't sound so great with my Marshall SV20. I use a Union Tube & Transistor Tone Druid (hard to get past the name, but...) for even more plexi overdrive.

[s_mcsleazy]

i voted rat and klon because that's mainly what i use in TFS. also my custom boost but that's a different beast entirely.

i feel like between those 3, i can get all the dirt i need.

[panoramic]

[blacktiger]

I’ve done a deep dive on fuzz recently and discovered that I have a preference for Tone Benders. Between the various versions (1, 1.5, 2, and 3), they cover pretty much all the ground I need them to. For cleaner sounds, I lean towards treble boosters and Klon klones. I love what other people do with Fuzz Faces and Muffs, but they don’t really work for what I’m going for (whatever the hell that is - I know it when I hear it).

[andy_tchp]

Is there any truth to the story that Hotcakes are great with Voxes, and a bit flat with Fenders?

This became 'internet conventional wisdom' at some point but seems to mostly be people parroting things they've heard elsewhere (or blaming the equipment because they can't make it sound good). There was also the myth they were designed specifically to be used with AC30s.

My Hotcake always sounds/sounded great into big Fender amps and was the only distortion/overdrive I used with my setup for many years when first starting out. Certainly not 'flat', whatever that means.

[PorkyPrimeCut]

RAT, Muff, Superfuzz, ToneBender.

I guess, obviously, my choices vary in a band or solo context.

I absolutely adore the classic 2 options of a SuperFuzz pedal, particularly the woolier, heavy-as-fuck position but it would become very unusable in a 4-piece band context, getting totally lost in the mix. I'd say the same about my ToneBender. Such a great pedal, if only it stood out more.
The distortion on my Vox Ultrasonic (which is basically a silicon Fuzz Face) stood out better, maybe due to its slightly more piercing, nasal tone. This is accentuated further when you kick in the Treble Boost.
I guess the pedal that always came out on top (and would never leave my board, if I had one!) is the ProCo RAT. That little indestructible black box of joy can do a number of things very, very well & still sit beautifully in a band dynamic.

EDIT - I should also add that I was never the lead player in the band. If I had been I dare say the old school Fuzzes would've come out on top.

[Sauerkraut]

I guess the pedal that always came out on top (and would never leave my board, if I had one!) is the ProCo RAT. That little indestructible black box of joy can do a number of things very, very well & still sit beautifully in a band dynamic.

It also has the amazing ability to make even the shittiest amp sound at least decent.
I love my Rat.

And I like my Klon clone (Tumnus), but I think that new MXR Duke pedal might replace it as soon as I’m less broke. Also very much enjoying the DBA Germanium Filter, now that I finally figured out how to tame that beast. I tried two TS-based pedals; Jam Lucydreamer and EQD Plumes and figured out I just don’t get along with anything TS-based. Rats are far better for distortion to my ears, and I like a more “transparent” overdrive. Weirdly, I never tried a muff. I had a Marshall Shredmaster, Boss OS-2 and OD-3 many years ago. Not bad, not great, all three of them. The OD-3 was probably best of those. The Shredmaster, from what I remember, was just alright (it's no Rat, unfortunately). The SubDecay Liquid Sunshine mkII was cool too, before it broke, but it coloured my sound too much for my liking.